() — Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman says he’s not biased against Erik and Lyle Menendez despite accusations from the brothers’ attorney.
“Nothing could be further from the truth,” Hochman told ‘s Elizabeth Vargas on Friday. “We’ve put in both facts that are favorable and unfavorable to our ultimate position.”
Erik and Lyle Menendez are currently spending life in prison without the possibility of parole for fatally shooting their father and mother in their Beverly Hills home in 1989. The brothers were 18 and 21 at the time of the killings.
Now, the brothers are pushing to have their sentences reduced — a bid that former LA County DA George Gascón supported, but one that Hochman has opposed.
The resentencing hearings were supposed to take place this week but now face further delays.
Mark Geragos, the brothers’ attorney, accused Hochman of having a personal bias against his clients and wants him removed from the case.
“The family does not want to go through this charade anymore with the DA,” Geragos said Thursday. “This is a DA that made up his mind and did no hard work.”
Hochman rejects those assertions and told Vargas his office has taken the case “incredibly seriously,” reviewing “over 50,000 pages of trial transcripts, thousands of pages of prison records and hundreds of hours of videotape,” among other work.
“Our ultimate position with respect to resentencing is not ‘no,’ it’s ‘not yet,'” Hochman said.
He continued: “When the Menendez brothers fully accept responsibility for all their criminal conduct, deceit, lies and cover-up, then we have said that the judge should reconsider at that point.”
The extended Menendez family, aside from an uncle who died last month, has said they fully forgive the brothers for what they did and want them to be freed.
The next hearing is set for May 9, where lawyers will argue whether a new report from California’s parole board is admissible in court.
Watch the interview with Nathan Hochman in the player above.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
